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Servan (race)
The Servans are a young race which built a civilization from Serva that later grew into a Stellar Empire known today as the Dual Confederacy. Servans are biologically human in every way, but they are a Starborne rather than Earthborne culture, and have developed a culture almost entirely independent of Earth's influence. This makes them distinct enough to warrant study as being separate, as many of the assumptions about human lifestyle and such do not apply to Servans. Servans are by far the largest single Starborne human culture, with a population exceeding 1.5 billion. The next largest known Starborne group, the Khanten, number in the hundreds of thousands. Early History: Mett's Folly and Arrival In the early days of Human starfaring ventures, navigating space was a rare talent, only just then being pioneered by Astrea Geirsdotter. At this point, 'dead reckoning' was the mainstay of getting around. Some captains became proficient at it to the point of being able to reliably travel around short distances. Furthermore, starships could not support large populations yet, which meant early colonies were small and required numerous expeditions to bring new waves of migrants. This was expensive and time-consuming. A team of scientists under Mett Dohter thought they could get around both problems, and cost-effectively at that. It was assumed that they could send a starship on a long-distance journey if the trip was pre-calculated from Earth rather than done on the move with all the unknown variables. In addition, while a starship would struggle to support millions of fully-grown humans, Mett and his team believed that it would be much easier to support millions of human embryos, to be cared for and managed by a large crew of volunteer Anthrosons. Eager to prove that such a thing was possible with the early Expansion Era's limited technology, and the fame that would be associated with it, a starship, the Anthrosons, and the embryos were prepared and by Year 20, everything was ready. The starship was a large Star Galleon built in a Kazakh orbital foundry, and built to be as rugged and reliable as possible. The Anthrosons included several hundred volunteers from Somaque itself, while embryos were drawn from a large number of donors from the North Sea and Mediterranean areas. The expedition set out, to great fanfare, into the depths of uncharted space. Contact was lost with the Anthroson crew before three months went by. Although Mett insisted that anything could be the cause, before the end of the year most people had presumed the expedition a complete failure. Those who had funded Mett's research demanded their money back, and Mett spent the rest of his life trying to work off the debts he had accrued. Unbeknownst to the rest of mankind, Mett and his team had failed to calculate how much Dark Matter fuel would be necessary to reach the intended destination, and even with the reserve fuel to be used in case of emergencies, the Anthrosons determined they would not be able to reach it. Still determined to complete their mission, the Anthrosons used the reserve fuel to get them to a place that might be just as good, and that place ended up being Serva. It was here that the Servan people built a civilization, in isolation from the rest of humanity, for 160 years before being re-discovered. The first Servan children developed a language, which over time grew into the Servan language as spoken today. With the help of the Anthrosons, the Servans grew to understand the basics of modern technology and established organized settlements. With time, divisions appeared and Servans had tensions and conflicts with one another. The Anthrosons that had escorted the expedition were not heavy-handed parents, eventually taking an indirect approach to the role, living as secluded hermits and offering advice from time to time. Middle History: Planetary Development Late History: War and Independence In Year 182, Serva was re-discovered by the Exploration Fleet, and as a result the Region was dubbed Mett's Folly. Servan reception to re-establishing contact was mixed. Some welcomed interstellar visitors, learned Earthborne languages, and learned about Earthborne technology (which had advanced considerably further than Servan). Others grew worried at the influx of foreigners, the cantons they built, the technology they possessed, and their differing ways. They perceived the Earthbornes as a threat to Servan way of life. The latter group was probably right in the end, as the megacorps were drooling over a vast, already-populated world that had been determined to be rich with resources. Controlling Serva would allow the megacorps to project power into the remote areas of the Eastern Fringe. The Profit Communion was the first to arrive in force, triggering a dispute between Tritach and Innovaganix. Trade Guild partners though they may be, open war was only avoided when the corps agreed to split Serva right down the middle: Tritach received the area the Servans called the Tarbu Archipelago, and Innovaganix received the Carthai Archipelago. Both megacorps' administration forcefully relocated Servans to the cities where they had the most control. Servan labor was mobilized to exploit untapped natural resources like Deuterium and various mineral deposits, and Servans were paid in nearly worthless corporate scrips and forced to buy things from their 'benefactors'. Orbital facilities and space elevators were constructed, and Serva's wealth was sent abroad. Already, resistance groups had emerged, their centers of power on remote islands, smuggling arms from Selena Strong Arms, harassing megacorp infrastructure and recruiting sleeper agents to dismantle it from the inside. Of the two regimes, Innovaganix was perhaps the most benevolent. It took a census of the Servan population under its control and kidnapped many worthy candidates for experimentation in secret, but had agreed to let the Servans form an assembly to present issues to the IVX rulers. The assembly was mostly only an appeasement tactic, but it did have some sway, at one point convincing IVX to remove its troops from workers' homes. Once the Servan population had concentrated where the megacorps wanted them, Innovaganix troops largely took on a defensive role, fighting only those insurgents who were openly hostile, and deploying the navy to hunt them down. Tritach was the greater evil of the two. It refused to listen to the complaints of the workers, and disobedience was punished with death. Tritach's army was more visible as an occupation force, and patrolled the streets to enforce strict curfews. Insurgents were tracked and punished publicly, paraded through the streets in a Punishment Sphere. Maxim Harvey claimed that these were necessary measures to build a utopia on Serva, which he claimed was his dream. The Servans in Rubiya eventually had enough of Maxim's abuse however, and in Year 186 went on strike, refusing to work until their demands were met, and rallied in the streets. Recalling the Solovh Massacre in Year 177 and the promotion he received, Maxim decided to repeat it. Tritach soldiers surrounded the protesters from above and sprayed gunfire into the crowd. This Rubiya Massacre was even worse than the one at Solovh. The common people felt even more sympathetic to the those militants that had been actively resisting megacorp rule since the beginning, and after Rubiya finally agreed to join in a mass uprising. So began the Servan Independence War. After Cambrian War Life and Society Culture Servans have an especially high respect for Anthrosons, remembering their role in the genesis of Servan civilization. A very small number of Servans go as far as to worship the Anthrosons. When the original Anthroson crew's machinery eventually gave out and repairs were no longer possible, the robots were buried in elaborate tombs fit for royalty, according to the Servans' simplistic beliefs. While other Starborne cultures go to great lengths to separate themselves from Earthbornes, the Servans made a number of Earthborne friends and are possibly the most accepting and cosmopolitan of Starborne cultures. The Servans acknowledge that they all belong to the greater 'human' race. Any doubts to the contrary were muffled when Earthborne allies became critical to the independence of the Servan people. Servan life is heavily tied to the ocean. Serva is essentially a giant archipelago, and no Servan lives more than 40 miles inland. Early Servan settlers learned how to build sailboats and how to fish very quickly, and settlements sprang up in more and more areas of the planet as Servan fishermen left home and got stranded or followed schools of migrating fish to new islands. Today, this maritime culture is still very strong. Technology Land reclamation The Servans grew to be adept at reclaiming land from the sea, becoming aware of the possibility by studying historical Dutch attempts. Shipbuilding Servans are experts at starship construction. This allowed them to build the infamous ICFS Rubiya, arguably the most powerful warship in the galaxy, until its final defeat at the Battle of Cygnus.